Pokey Minch
.]] '''Pokey Minch' (ポーキー・ミンチ Pōkī Minchi) is a fictional character in the 1995 video game EarthBound and the 2006 video game Mother 3. He is a boy from the suburbs of Onett, Ness' portly and obnoxious next-door neighbor, and the older brother of Picky Minch. Pokey's family seems to hold a grudge against Ness', because his father, Aloysius Minch, allegedly loaned a few hundred thousand dollars to Ness' father (though Aloysius admits it could have been a lot less), and was never repaid. Although he and his father found work in Fourside as consultants for the city's mayor, the Minch's continued to feud with Ness' family. Pokey's battle theme in EarthBound is titled "Pokey Means Business". His themes in Mother 3 are "Master Porky's Theme" and "Absolutely Safe Capsule", and are played during the initial confrontations with him and following his retreat into the Absolutely Safe Capsule, respectively. Biography When a meteor shower occurs in the mountains north of their houses in Onett, Pokey and his younger brother Picky sneak out of their house to investigate. When Picky turns up missing, Pokey turns to Ness, pleading him to help him find his younger brother, clearly because he is too cowardly to go alone. After sweet-talking Ness' mother and pretending to be Ness' friend while hiding his obvious contempt of him (he threatens to use profanity if Ness doesn't help him), Ness agrees to help him. At the meteorite landing site, Ness, Pokey, and Picky meet Buzz Buzz, an alien from 10 years in the future. Pokey learns of the impending destruction of the universe at the hands of Giygas, but convinces himself that he is not one of the heroes that the alien speaks of. When they are confronted by one of Giygas' cohorts, Starman Junior, Pokey cowers in fear while Ness and Picky, assist Buzz Buzz in defeating the alien. After Ness escorts Pokey and Picky safely home, Pokey isn't seen again for some time. At some time, Pokey joins the Happy Happyist cult, and becomes a high priest. When Ness confronts him, he orders two of the cult's followers to attack Ness. After the cult is disbanded, he and his father end up working as business consultants for Fourside mayor Geldegarde Monotoli. He uses the money to live a luxurious life, but he eventually steals Monotoli's helicopter after Monotoli is confronted by Ness. That helicopter is shown to have been crashed in the Deep Darkness, and Pokey (now discolored from time travel) is not seen (although he still causes trouble for Ness's adventure offscreen, such as stealing the original Phase Distorter) until he appears with Giygas, where he claims that Giygas was leading him the whole time, and that he only serves "the strong and able." He expresses to Ness his new belief that Giygas should destroy the universe. He appears in an organic spider-like machine, and battles Ness and his friends (in their robotic forms) alongside Giygas. Once Giygas is destroyed, Pokey uses time travel to escape into another era, but not before taunting Ness one last time. His last message comes through Picky in the form of a note that says, "Come and get me, loser! Spankety spankety spankety!" Pokey returns in Mother 3 as King P, drastically aged due to his abuse of time travel, but still mentally immature, to the extent that he sanctions unspeakable experiments on animals just to make them "look cool." He is revealed to be the true antagonist of Mother 3 and is first seen in the tallest tower in New Pork City in which the party of Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney make their way up the floors until they discover a robot that resembles Pokey. They compete with the robot in a few mini-games before moving on to Pokey himself. On top of the tower, they find the Hall of Memories, showcasing many items from EarthBound, before ending up in a long hallway leading to Pokey. In Pokey's room they are attacked by more complete Pokey robots, which are soon destroyed by Duster's ex-bandmates of DCMC. After the townspeople of Tazmily Village enter the room with Dr. Andonuts and Flint, Pokey descends from the vines on the roof to speak to the party. He reveals that the last Needle has been found and challenges Lucas and friends to beat him to it via the express elevator. Lucas, Boney, Kumatora, Duster, and Flint slide down the elevator shaft to a mine-like environment. Pokey soon confronts them in a large spider mecha. When he sees he is to be defeated, he calls upon the "Absolutely Safe Capsule" and climbs inside. It seals Pokey inside, and being true to its name, it protects Pokey from all harm. However, Pokey finds that he cannot harm the heroes, either. When the battle ends, Dr. Andonuts reveals that he built the Absolutely Safe Capsule with the specifications that once someone is inside, the machine cannot be opened by anyone, including the person inside of it. So while Pokey is indeed "absolutely safe" he is trapped in the machine forever, doomed to spend eternity in isolation. Shortly after, Andonuts arrives confessing his sympathy for the tyrannical child, as in his own words, ". . . All he can do now is spend eternity inside the capsule, in absolute safety." Personality In both games, Pokey Minch is shown to be very immature, even when his body ages beyond his own measure. He is often described as obnoxious and annoying, often referred to by neighbors as "That pig-like boy", which might have led to his idea with the Pigmask Army. To some players, however, he only wanted friends and love, which resulted in his corruption to Giygas. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl Pokey Minch has also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl's adventure mode, the Subspace Emissary. Here, he is seen as a high-ranked member of the Subspace Army who attacks Lucas and Ness in The Ruined Zoo using his Pig King Statue and a fleet of Primids. In this appearance he is referred to "Porky", a more proper translation of his name. Trivia * As with Giygas before him, Pokey's attacks in Mother 3 are stated to be inexplicable although one is described as "spraying" in nature. Category:EarthBound characters Category:Nintendo antagonists Category:Super Smash Bros. fighters Category:Video game bosses Category:Child supervillains Category:Child characters in video games Category:Fictional military personnel Category:Fictional centenarians Category:1995 introductions